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Monday, January 4, 2016

Two Poems by Rick Mitchell

Pre-trembling
The water waves in easily this
evening, seethes back over the
pebbled shore. Children sleep in
the screened porch, breathing
pale moonlight that blues the cabin.

On the diving rock near the moored
boat, they sit watching rippled
blackness where minnows skitter like
flat rocks across the surface. After
her cheek brushes his and she leaves,
he wonders why anyone else should
visit him now.

He hears the hot water for the
shower, leans back, sees her shirt
slip off, fall below the window ledge.
A piece of driftwood clacks against
the boat while across the lake, soundless
lightening scores an indigo sky.

Lesson

Had to see them saw the clothesline

tree, elm whose flirting shadows

the land knew long before

even thoughts of a farm house.

And when it fell, he squeezed tight his

five year old eyes as the ground trembled

and nothing beneath his feet

felt solid ever again.

Rick Mitchell is a lifelong resident of New York State; except for the four years he lived in Reno and attended the University of Nevada. His poems have recently appeared in The Camel Saloon, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Skylark, and The Cimarron Review, Chiron Review Press published Speaking of Seed and Night, his first book of poetry and Aldrich Press published Before Every Other Fall in 2014.

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About the Editor

A.J. Huffman has published thirteen full-length poetry collections, fourteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses. Her most recent releases, The Pyre On Which Tomorrow Burns (Scars Publications), Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers. She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2600 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.